Will Werner Herzog‘s “Bucking Fastard“ be a last-minute addition to the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lineup? If it is, it’ll be a midnight hour decision. But Variety reports that another project involving Rooney Mara will be on the Croisette, albeit at the Cannes market.
READ MORE: The 150 Most Anticipated Films Of 2026 (Part 2)
Mara will star in “Quest For Love” from Irish writer-director Antonia Campbell-Hughes, with HanWay Films handling its international sales at the Cannes market later this month, and WME Independent repping domestically. The actress will also serve as executive producer on the project. Read on for a synopsis for the film, which hints that this may be a dark, career-defining performance for Mara:
The story follows the ruthlessly unsentimental but alluring Maris (Rooney) as she tears into Paris with her estranged ten- year-old son Maxy. Raised around her recently deceased father’s euthanasia work, she’s unsure if she’s even capable of feeling love. Setting up home in the charming Marais neighbourhood, she explores her capacity for human connection with Maxy, who desperately craves his mother’s love. Magnetic and funny, Maris easily draws people into her orbit, but her nocturnal habits hint at a dangerous violence that lurks beneath the surface. Unlike his amoral mother, Maxy knows right from wrong – and he’s clever enough to use her tricks against her to survive. Maris re-ignites a relationship with Alex, a devoted old flame whose growing love for Maxy forces her to make a deadly choice.
“Quest For Love” is Campbell-Hughe’s follow-up to “High End,” starring Andrea Riseborough, Guy Pearce, and Raffey Cassidy; she just wrapped shooting that film. Before that, her directorial debut was 2022’s “It Is In Us All,” with Cosmos Jarvis and Claes Bang. That film had its world premiere at SXSW 2022. Campbell-Hughes had a lengthy acting career in Ireland before heading behind the camera this decade.
Is it any surprise that “Quest For Love” hits the Cannes market? No, not really, given that the project was developed as part of the Screen Ireland and Luxembourg Film Fund Initiative that launched at the festival back in 2023. Producers on the film include Macdara Kelleher and John Keville via Wild Atlantic Pictures, as well as Gilles Chanial of Les Films Fauves.
Here’s a press statement from HanWay Films CEO Gabrielle Stewart on “Quest For Love”: “Cinema has created many magnetic and iconic characters who dance on the edge of subversion and violence, from “American Psycho” to “Silence of the Lambs,” but few are women. Antonia and Rooney have a very clear vision to challenge us with Maris, who tears through Paris on her ducati: enigmatic, beautiful, violent, and a mother.”
Beyond “Bucking Fastard,” which Mara co-stars in with her sister Kata Mara, other recent work for the actress includes 2024’s “La Cocina” and 2022’s “Women Talking.”
Stay tuned for more details on “Quest For Love” as they arrive.
